Characteristics of Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall

Buildings Damaged During 2010 Chile Earthquake

R. Jnemann, M. Hube & J.C. De La Llera

Department of Structural and Geothechnical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Catlica de
Chile, Chile

E. Kausel
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
USA

SUMMARY
This article succinctly describes some statistical results on the geometry and the earthquake behavior of medium to
high rise Chilean fish-bone type shear-wall buildings damaged during the February 27, Great Maule earthquake
(Mw=8.8). The objective of the research summarized herein was to consolidate in one complete database all of the
information on damaged buildings so as to assess their common characteristics from the point of view of seismic
design. This paper makes the case that most of the damage took place in newer high rise buildings, caused in part
by the use of ever slenderer walls in progressively taller buildings, and more importantly, was mostly the result of
brittle failure in the walls at lower elevations due to high compressive loads in tall buildings, say those with more
than ten stories. These findings strongly suggest that new shear wall design aspects should be incorporated in
Chilean seismic codes.
Keywords: reinforced concrete, seismic behavior, shear walls, Chile earthquake

1. INTRODUCTION
The February 27th 2010 Maule earthquake was one of the strongest ever measured (Mw=8.8, EERI
2010). Its effects were felt over 500 km of the central Chile coast, affecting more than 12 million people,
which is about 70% of the countrys population. The earthquake also triggered a tsunami that devastated
several coastal towns in south-central Chile. Both the motion and the tsunami resulted in about 560
deaths, more than 800,000 injuries (Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo 2010), and serious damage to
residential buildings, hospitals, schools, industries, lifelines, and other infrastructure.
A large majority of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings performed well during the earthquake, but
extensive localized damage occurred in some of these structures. Close to 2% of the estimated 2,300 RC
buildings taller than 9 stories suffered substantial damage during the earthquake. Some examples of the
typical unzipping (bending-compression) failure observed in the shear walls at lower elevations are
shown in Fig. 1. Considering that other buildings with similar structural concepts performed rather well
during this earthquake, it behooves to elucidate some of the reasons underlying one type of behavior over
the other.

Figure 1. Examples of typical failure in walls

Additionally, the typical Chilean building behaved very well during the large, previous 1985 Chile
earthquake, and one of the main reasons for this behavior may have been their conservative design, as
reflected in the large amount of total shear-wall to floor area of, say, 5-6% (Hidalgo et al 2002, Wood
1991). Considering that construction practices and design precepts have evolved significantly in Chile
since 1985, one of the goals of the research described herein was to discern how the design practice may
have changed and thus influenced the seismic performance of tall buildings.
This article presents results of a large initiative that collected, classified and analyzed all the valuable
information provided by the natural experiment to which the RC shear-wall buildings were subjected to
during the 2010 Chile earthquake. As the damage was spread throughout different cities of the country
and as the structural information was not always available to the public, one of the main goals of this
research was to consolidate all the information of damaged buildings into one database and present it in a
standard format. The focus was on Chilean fish-bone type buildings taller than 9 stories and located in
the densest cities affected by the earthquake: Santiago, Via del Mar and Concepcin. From a total of 47
RC buildings that suffered moderate to severe damage during the earthquake, complete information was
obtained for 34 cases. Structural drawings as well as soil mechanics and damage inspection reports were
collected for each case, generating the most complete database of damaged buildings available at
present. Three damage levels where defined based on the habitability conditions of the buildings
immediately after the earthquake: damage level I means a building with restricted use; damage level II
stands for a building declared non-habitable; and damage level III is assigned to a collapsed building or
one that has collapse risk. The damage level for a structure was defined in most cases after a visual
inspection of the building performed by different teams throughout the country. Although limited in
scope, nonetheless some definite trends in the data suggest that most of the damage occurred in new and
tall buildings, and the issue is why. To answer this question, the information was classified and structural
characteristics were calculated and analyzed. The main building properties that relate to the observed
damage are presented in the next sections.

2. REINFORCED CONCRETE SHEAR WALL BUILDINGS IN CHILE

The most common residential Chilean building is that of the fish-bone type. These rely almost
exclusively on a system of RC shear walls to withstand gravity and lateral loads. They are characterized
by a typical plan with a central longitudinal corridor with shear walls and transverse walls that separate
building apartments and interior rooms. Transverse walls run from the corridor toward the building
exterior creating a topology like a fish bone (Fig. 2). Usually, a couple of basement stories are
included, and no lintels are used to link the walls. They typically range between 5 to 25 stories in height
and on average they have 13 floors, but buildings over 15 floors are now more common, especially since
1996 (Caldern 2007, Gmez 2001, Guzmn 1998).

6
7
11
13

15

Figure 2. Typical floor plan and core elevation of a fish-bone Chilean residential building in Santiago

Furthermore, the ratio of wall area to floor plan area i.e. the wall density is relatively large compared
with buildings of similar height in seismic regions of the U.S. Wall densities in Chile range most
commonly between 1.5% to 3.5% in each direction, with a mean value of 2.8%, a characteristic that has
remained almost constant in time (Caldern 2007, Gmez 2001). Walls are rather uniformly distributed
in the two principal directions and the large amount of wall area results in very stiff buildings
(Guendelman et al1997, Moroni 2011).

3. CHARACTERISTICS OF DAMAGED BUILDINGS

Focusing on the inventory of damaged buildings, two aspects arise immediately: i) damaged buildings
are mainly new structures; and ii) average wall densities of damaged buildings are similar to those of
standard Chilean buildings.
On the one hand, analysis of data indicates that most of damaged buildings are mainly new structures.
Fig. 3a) shows that although most damaged buildings (Damage Level III) are well distributed by year of
construction, most of the inventory was constructed after the year 2000. In fact, 81% of the inventory of
damaged buildings (considering all damage levels) was constructed from year 2000 compared to 68% in
the case of the inventory of total buildings1 (Fig. 3b)). This leads us to conclude that as of the date when
the earthquake struck, there was a huge number of medium to high-rise structures constructed before
year 2000 which did not suffer as much damage as the newer ones. Thus, the earthquake affected mainly
relatively new structures.
100

Damage Level
III
II
I

15

2000-2009
<2000

80
Buildings (%)

Number of Buildings

20

10
5

60

68%
81%

40
20

32%

19%

a)

>2008

2006- 2008

2003- 2005

2000- 2002

<2000

Total

Damaged

b)

Figure 3. Distribution by year of construction. a) Distribution of damaged buildings by damage level. b)

Comparison of total buildings versus damaged buildings

On the other hand, analysis of data indicates that the average wall density has not changed over the time.
Moreover, it has also remained fairly constant for the buildings constructed in the past decade and is
similar to those observed during 1985 earthquake. In the case of damaged buildings, wall densities in
both directions have mean values which are very close: 2.76 and 2.87% for the longitudinal and
transverse directions respectively (Fig. 4). These values are similar to those provided in past reports by
other authors who have studied Chilean RC shear-wall buildings (Caldern 2007, Gmez 2001, Wood
1991).

Estimated using available statistics from INE

20
0

10

15

20
15
10
5
0

Number of buildings

1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5

long %

a)

1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

3.5 4.0 4.5

trans %

b)

Figure 4. Wall density distribution in damaged buildings. a) Longitudinal direction. b) Transverse direction.

As most of damaged buildings were built mainly after year 2000 and thus were not struck by the
previous 1985 earthquake, it behooves to find the main structural characteristics that have changed in the
intervening years. Analysis of damaged buildings database suggests that what has actually changed is: i)
buildings tend to be taller on average; ii) wall thicknesses have decreased; iii) buildings are more slender;
and iv) buildings tend to have large vertical irregularities, and especially so at the ground level. As a
result, the initial state of stress of walls caused by gravity forces is higher now than it has been in the
past.
Indeed, construction practice in Chile has evolved and current RC buildings tend to be taller. In fact, the
percentage of dwelling units in buildings of 9 stories or more over the total number of dwelling units has
increased from 7% in 2001 to 20% in 2009 (INE 2001-2009), according to available national data.
However, looking at the distribution by number of stories of the inventory of damaged buildings (Fig.
5a), most buildings had between 10 and 14 floors, and with one exception, none was taller than 24
stories. Fig. 5b) compares the distribution by number of stories of total inventory of buildings versus the
inventory of damaged buildings constructed in the period 2002-2009 since in that period available data is
found. As can be observed, there is a larger proportion of buildings in the damaged inventory in the
range 10-14 floors and 20-24 floors than there is for ranges 15-19 or > 24 floors when compared to the
total inventory of buildings. Particularly interesting to observe is the low percentage of damaged
buildings of more than 24 floors, which begs the question as to why. Most probably, because of their
status as iconic structures as well as their expense, such buildings may have received a more careful,
conservative design, may have relied on modern devices for motion control and energy dissipation, and
may have employed better materials. For example, Titanium Tower was the highest building in Chile at
the time of the earthquake (52 over ground floors plus another 7 underground floors), and its dissipation
devices were responsible in part of the outstanding behavior.

100

Damage Level

Number of buildings (%)

Number of Buildings

20

III
II
I

15
10
5

28%

20%

N of floors

60

24%

31%

40
20

38%

44%

Total

Damaged

>24
20-24
15-19
10-14

>24

20-24

15-19

0
10-14

80

4%

11%

Number of stories

a)

b)

Figure 5. Distribution by number of stories. a) Distribution by damage level. b) Comparison of total buildings
versus damaged buildings in the period 2002-2009

15
10
5
0

Number of buildings

20

Second, wall thickness has decreased and the average value in the inventory of damaged buildings is 19
cm, with the distribution shown in Fig. 6. It is shown that 25% of the inventory has wall thickness lower
than 17 cm and 80% of the building inventory has values lower than 21 cm. This thickness-dimension is
very low when compared with the thickness of 30 to 50 cm observed in buildings in Via del Mar whose
date of construction preceded the 1985 earthquake i.e. buildings that date back to a time when Chilean
codes required at least 20 cm thick walls (Wood 1991).

0.14

0.18

0.22

0.26

Wall Thickness (m)

Figure 6. Wall thickness distribution in damaged buildings

Third, the average slenderness ratio calculated as the total height of the building versus average
maximum transverse dimension of the plan ( / ) is 2.2 and the value of more damaged buildings tends
to be higher than the ratio for less damaged ones (Fig. 7).

6
2

I
II
III

Slenderness Ratio H bt

Damage Level

10

15

20

25

30

Nt
Figure 7. Slenderness ratio in damaged buildings

0.12
0.10
0.06

0.08

1 fcp %

0.14

0.16

As a result of the combination of these three factors, the initial state of stress of walls in the first floor is
on average 0.10 (Fig. 8), which is relatively high considering that axial loads increase considerably
due to seismic overturning forces.

10

15

20

25

30

Number of Stories

Figure 8. Average axial stress in first floor as a fraction of concrete strength in damaged buildings

Finally, most of damaged buildings show abrupt irregularities in the transition from above to below
ground level and in the first stories. On the one hand, the ratio of average floor plan area above ground
level (A ) versus average floor plan area below ground level (A ) defined as A /A is on average 0.66
for the inventory of damaged buildings, which means a huge increase in floor plan area in the
basements. This is generally accompanied by an increase in the wall area, which traduces in an average
wall density below ground level that is very similar to the average above ground level (on average
/ =0.98). However, the similar wall density is a tricky value, since the layout of the walls in the
basements is in general very different from the one in the first floor, as perimeter walls appear and core
walls are commonly discontinued to ensure the transit of cars. In fact, on average only 83% of the wall
area from the first floor continues directly in the first subterranean level. This implies that average axial
stresses in the first subterranean level are around 20% higher than the ones in the first floor, thus, the
average axial stresses below ground level is around 0.12 . Therefore, the lower elevations of recent
vintage buildings exhibit higher axial stresses, and this happens precisely at locations where some of

these walls exhibit discontinuities to make up for car ramps in basements. Thus, a typical damage
observed has been as of a brittle failure in lower elevations.
The Chilean codes for seismic design of RC buildings at the time of the earthquake (Instituto Nacional
de Normalizacin 1996, 2008) did not impose restrictions on compressive load in walls and did not
establish minimum thickness for shear walls. Additionally, those codes were based on the ACI 318-95
(American Concrete Institute, 1995) seismic provisions but the confinement requirement for wall
boundaries was specifically exempted. After the 2010 earthquake, two decrees were promulgated that
changed the previous codes. First, Decree N60 modified the Chilean code for reinforced concrete design
(Decreto N60 2011, Nch430Of.2008) which limited the maximum compressive stress in walls to 0.35
and defined new criteria for wall confinement. Second, Decree N61 modified the Chilean code for
seismic design of buildings (Decreto N61 2011, Nch433Of.1996) which changed the soil classification
requiring in-situ test, and defined a more conservative displacement spectrum to estimate the roof
displacements of RC buildings. Although there have been improvements in design codes, based on the
data considered in this study we believe that new codes should establish limits on the initial state of
stress in the walls, on the minimum wall thickness and also on the allowable vertical irregularities, which
were all aggravating factors observed in the damaged buildings.

4. CONCLUSIONS
This article summarized an analysis of the structural characteristics and properties of a group of 34
buildings damaged during the 2010 Chile earthquake, which represent 72% of the RC buildings of more
than 9 stories which suffered moderate to severe damage during the earthquake.
The data shows that for the most part, the damaged buildings were newer structures built after the year
2000, and that there exist common factors in the RC damaged structures which suggest the need for
additional revisions to the Chilean seismic design codes. These are: (i) low wall thickness, (ii) high
number of stories, (iii) high vertical irregularities especially in lower levels and (iv) very slender
buildings. All of these characteristics may result in high average axial loads in RC walls due to gravity
effects, which become critical when seismic stresses are added.
The wall density parameter that was mainly responsible for the good performance of Chilean buildings
in the previous 1985 earthquake cannot guarantee similar behavior in future earthquakes if other design
characteristics, such as very slender walls and high initial states of stress with the potential to elicit brittle
behavior, are ignored.

AKCNOWLEDGEMENT
The Authors are grateful to the many people and institutions which made this work possible. This research was
funded by the Chilean Fondo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologa, Fondecyt, through Grant #1110377. The
authors are grateful for this support and would like to thank also the following professors: Rafael Riddell,
Rodrigo Jordn, and Ral Alvarez, engineers: Roco Rivera, Benjamn Westenenk, Juan Jos Besa, and
companies: SIRVE S.A., DICTUC S.A., and Spoerer Ingenieros Asociados SpA.

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